The present invention relates to an electronic musical instrument obtained by electronically configuring an acoustic musical instrument having a plurality of performance operators for determining a tone pitch of a musical tone to be generated in accordance with a combination of operation of the plurality of performance operators, for example, a wind instrument such as a trumpet, horn, euphonium or tuba.
Conventionally, on the above-described wind instruments, a tone pitch of a musical tone is determined in accordance with two input operations of an input operation on three or four valves and an embouchure input operation. However, it is quite difficult for a rank beginner to successfully produce a musical tone by conducting these two input operations on such wind instruments. In particular, the embouchure input operation is difficult for beginners. Even if the beginner has succeeded in generating a tone, he/she still has a hurdle to overcome before completing a musical piece. More specifically, since a scale (in particular, a series of overtone pitches) is determined in accordance with a combination of the three valve operations, and a tone pitch is determined in accordance with a combination of an embouchure input operation and the valve operations, various different tone pitches can be produced by a combination of valve operations. Therefore, the present applicant has disclosed a performance controller used as an apparatus for practicing such wind instruments (Japanese Laid-Open No. 2003-91285A).
The performance controller disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open No. 2003-91285A has only overcome the difficulty of the embouchure operation and is still susceptible to improvement as a trainer for beginning players. Playing a musical instrument such as a trumpet, horn, euphonium and tuba on which a tone is determined by a fingering combination is difficult because a combination of depressing operations on three or four valves results in a plurality of possible tone pitches. That is, compared to instruments such as keyboard instruments on which an individual tone pitch is determined by an individual key, acquiring skills to play a wind instrument smoothly is more difficult. As a result, beginning players cannot readily play a musical instrument on which a tone is determined by a fingering combination, having difficulty even in finding where to start with in practicing the instrument.